


An Old Starship

by Amielleon



Category: A Dark Room (Doublespeak Games)
Genre: Experimental Style (per canon), Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-30
Updated: 2014-06-30
Packaged: 2018-02-06 19:43:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1870032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amielleon/pseuds/Amielleon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>builder says she'll die in the cold.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Old Starship

**Author's Note:**

> forgive my rampant copypasting from canon. it's for a good cause. i think.

the familiar curves of a wanderer vessel rise up out of the dust and ash.  
lucky that the natives can't work the mechanisms.  
with a little effort, it might fly again.

\---

didn't always live here.

snow and ice piled two feet thick. perfect climate for wanderers.  
wanderers are restless.

the fleets were strong.  
they took what they wanted, rock to rock.

went too far.  
there were others, with gleaming ships of terrible might.

fled deep into uncharted space.  
debris whirled by the vessel.  
struck coming in. shot out from the plummeting spaceship.

a rock in blue and brown, scarred and battered from battles lost.  
the others were here, once.

dry brush and dead branches litter the forest floor.  
the fire is roaring.  
the room is hot.

builder works by the fire.

\---

builder stays in the firelit room.  
it's cold outside.

embark.

a wall of gnarled trees rises from the dust. their branches twist into a skeletal canopy overhead.  
a snarling beast leaps out of the underbrush.  
stab. swing. slash. thrust.  
the snarling beast is dead.

the trees are gone. parched earth and blowing dust are poor replacements.

a huge hole is cut deep into the earth, evidence of past harvest.  
they took what they came for, and left.  
castoff from the mammoth drills can still be found by the edges of the precipice.

alien alloy will be useful.

\---

builder can't help with the alien alloy. says it's beyond her knowledge.

the hull looks stronger now. lots of rubble in space.  
somewhere above the debris cloud, the wanderer fleet hovers.

more traps won't help now.  
no more room for huts.  
builder looks at the wanderer vessel.

it's a good piece of work.  
could make it up there, to somewhere else.  
fewer snarling beasts, pouring out of the trees.  
more creatures, in the untouched woods.

builder can't come. says she'll die in the cold.

builder can't stay. says she'll die in the cold. 

builder wishes things would remain this way.

no good can come of the way things are.

the spaceship waits, idle.

\---

a terrible plague is fast spreading through the village.  
not enough medicine. never enough medicine.

the nights are rent with screams, in the forest.

builder says to stay in the firelit room until it's over.  
the room is mild.  
the fire is flickering.  
builder stokes the fire.

\---

the village is silent.

builder scavenges some firewood.

builder says it's not personal.  
few last very long in this world.  
she thinks she could have lasted here a long time, if not for wanderer natures.

\---

somewhere above the debris cloud, the wanderer fleet hovers.  
been on this rock too long.

builder made the empty tannery.  
builder made the empty workshop.  
builder made the empty armory, for a thirsty rifle.

builder wonders if she can make the spaceship warm enough for creatures that shiver.  
says she thinks she could fix something, if she had the parts.

\---

embark.

a battle was fought here, long ago.  
battered technology from both sides lays dormant on the blasted landscape.  
there's one energy cell left in an abandoned laser rifle.

it's a long trip back.  
a beast, wilder than imagining, erupts out of the foliage.  
stab. slash. swing. thrust. use the last of the medicine.  
the feral terror charges. brittle shrubs give way. life gushes out onto the dry grass.  
the laser rifle is right there.  
blast.  
the feral terror is dead.

\---

somewhere above the debris cloud, the wanderer fleet hovers.

builder says she should have put her own kind first.

\---

embark.

a town lies abandoned, its citizens long dead.  
fight through the lawless streets.  
a man stands over a dead wanderer. notices he's not alone.  
eye for an eye seems fair.  
always worked before, at least.  
beneath the wanderer's rags, clutched in one of its many hands, a glint of steel.  
worth killing for, it seems.

deep in the swamp is a moss-covered cabin.  
an old wanderer sits inside, in a seeming trance.

a wanderer charm scavenged from trapped prey.

the wanderer takes the charm and nods slowly.  
he speaks of once leading the great fleets to fresh worlds.  
unfathomable destruction to fuel wanderer hungers.  
his time here, now, is his penance.

\---

a convoy lurches in, equal parts worry and hope.  
they take shelter in the huts and get to work cutting trees, hunting game.  
builder works repairing them, to hold up against the beasts in the wood.

the town begins to thrive again.  
builder beams with pride as she finishes mending the fence. she looks alive. 

somewhere above the debris cloud, the wanderer fleet hovers.  
been on this rock too long.  
now seems like a good time.

builder averts her eyes. says we all die someday.

\---

time to get out of this place.  
won't be coming back.  
lift off.

\---

(a destroyed village lies in the dust.  
charred bodies litter the ground.

the metallic tang of wanderer afterburner hangs in the air.)


End file.
